Repercussions

A dear friend of mine who’s known me for years wrote in after seeing that last picture of me and surmised that I had "not changed even one little bit!" Frankly, I concur, and sadly, that made me happy.
We have had a communications "brown-out" here recently and that is not uncommon. That means you may have sent emails I did not receive and visa-vera. If you sent an email recently and I did not answer, I probably did not get it. If then or in the future you have not received a reply, it may be that I am a slacker, but it may be because sometimes things don’t get through security.
I want you to know that I am not giving anyone the silent treatment on purpose or don’t care or any such thing. Simply, sometimes even emails get lost on their way to and from here. Please keep trying if it is important.
I say that simply because I have received so many wonderful, encouraging, kind, and communicative messages week after week and I want all to know that I am very grateful, even if the security gods snapped it up and I never got it or my reply never made it back to you--the things that get through are worth it and again, I heartily thank you.
What else? Iraq’s economy and employment are beginning to expand greatly. The growth in Iraq for the last 30 years under Saddam averaged something like .5 percent a year. This last year I think it was greater than 15 percent. In fact, the whole Mid-East is benefiting economically from the change here and ever greater interest in investments here shows great faith in the peace promised by this daring undertaking. That, admittedly, is my opinion, for what it is worth.
We are almost out of up-armor kits here, having burned through much of it here in the last month. It’s nice to relax a bit more but hopefully more will show up soon. The good news is maybe 100 or more vehicles are much better protected here now from our group alone. Our contract is with the army but we are giving space in our garage for the Air Force to come in and do their own vehicles. They have been provided a more complete wrap-around set of armor but not someone to do it for them. So it’s fun to come in and watch THEM work. Yes we help out, but they are actually more experienced in that particular kit. So far.
That’s it for now, more exciting news soon. Happy Sunday!
Ernie